UN Women (UNW) is grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, the UN WOMEN will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

In Kenya, the UN Women Country Programme contributes to the development objectives of Kenya’s blue print, the Vision 2030 and is aligned to the United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks (UNDAF) of 2009-2014 and the upcoming UNDAF of 2014-2018, as well as UN Women Global Strategic Plan. The Kenya Country Programme – “Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Gains Consolidated’ – aims to achieve the following results: (i) increased women’s leadership and participation in governance; (ii) strengthened women’s economic empowerment; (iii) increased protection of women & access to justice for women; and (iv) strengthened women’s leadership in peace building and humanitarian response.

The Government of the United Kingdom is supporting UN Women Kenya’s programme on women, peace and security, specifically on engaging women in preventing and countering extremist violence in Kenya. The aim of this programme is to highlight women’s roles in prevention efforts and recognizing their potentials as partners in prevention frameworks, in line with UNSCR 2242 (2015) which provides the strongest pronouncement of the linkages between countering terrorism and violent extremism, and women, peace and security. The women, peace and security agenda provides a critical framework for understanding and responding to terrorism and violent extremism. Founded on the principle that peace is inextricably linked to equality between men and women, the agenda highlights how violence, including extremist violence is underpinned by gender inequality. Thus, a gender perspective is required to prevent and counter terrorism and violent extremism effectively.

Relatively little empirical analysis and evidence is available to determine why and how men and women join violent extremist groups. In addition to being the victims of attacks, men and women from Kenya have carried out deadly attacks and are also directly involved in recruiting their fellow nationals to join the organization’s ranks. For alleged violent extremists who return, countries including Kenya are developing reintegration and de-radicalization programs. This is an area where further research is needed, particularly on the curriculum and methodology used, as well as the participants targeted. The design and delivery of these activities must be in line with international human rights law, including the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and women’s human rights.

It is in this context that UN Women in Kenya is seeking to recruit a consultant to provide to conduct comprehensive field research to examine the gender responsiveness rehabilitation and reintegration initiatives.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of work:

Under the overall guidance of the Peace and Security Specialist the consultant will be required to undertake a scoping study of gender-responsive and sensitive reintegration and rehabilitation programs, evidence based research and analysis undertaken. The consultant will also contribute to other efforts within the project that promote women’s active participation in efforts to prevent and respond to violent extremism and terrorism in Kenya.

Deliverables:

The findings and recommendations of the research will be discussed with the UN Women and stakeholders.

The key deliverables of the consultancy are:

Inception report outlining the design of the research – criteria, scope, methodology, data collection method and tools and time frame including a Draft Report Template: Submission of a draft report format containing Table of Contents for the final report for approval by UN Women;

Research Draft and Final Reports: The report should address the contents specified in TOR and use the format provided during the inception meeting. It should be logically structured, contain evidence-based findings, conclusions, lessons and recommendations, and should be free of information that is not relevant to the overall analysis;

Validation/Presentation: For presenting and discussing the draft final report interactively, the consultants will facilitate a one-day concluding workshop for the project stakeholders.

Competencies

Core Values/Guiding Principles:

Integrity:

Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism:

Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity:

Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff;

Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Development and Innovation:

Take charge of self-development and take initiative.

Work in teams:

Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Communicating and Information Sharing:

Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.

Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:

Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behavior towards others.

Conflict Management:

Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.

Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge.

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:

Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making.

Functional Competencies:

Development andOperational Effectiveness:

Ability to lead strategic information collection, analysis and result-based use of information;

Excellent communication, interpersonal and liaison skills with government, inter-governmental agencies, UN system and international and regional development partners, academic institutions, civil society organizations, and other relevant institutions;

Excellent research and analytical skills, including experience and knowledge about leading academic, data, research and gender-related resources;

Strong interpersonal skills demonstrated by the ability to gain the assistance and cooperation of others in a team endeavor; ability to build trust through operating with transparency and creating and open, positive and enabling environment;

Sound judgment and decision-making skills;

Ability to establish priorities and to plan, coordinate and monitor tasks to achieve results.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

At least a Master’s degree in peace and conflict studies, or relevant field of social sciences including social sciences, development studies, economics, political science, or public policy.

Experience:

A minimum of 10 years’ experience in research, and or development programs and related work, of which a minimum of 5 years was on peace building and conflict management or countering violent extremism;

Understanding of the Kenyan context with specific regards to the gender priorities and role of Women in peace-building and conflict management;

Demonstrated track record of research capabilities with specific emphasis on peace building and conflict management and contributed to publications in Kenya and in the region;

Demonstrated capacity to write clear and well-constructed reports in accordance with agreed terms of reference and within specified time constraints;

Knowledge and experience on developing plans and strategies on peace building and conflict management or countering violent extremism at national and local level.

Language:

Fluent in English;

Knowledge of local language is an asset.

Application procedure:

Interested Research Consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their suitability for the Consultancy:

A cover letter (not more than 450 words) explaining why s/he is the most suitable for the work and a complete UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Please group all your documents into one (1) single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.